A Plan to Save Refugees and Europe’s Open Borders

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission and the highest official of the European Union, has laid out a plan todistribute 160,000 refugees among E.U. members by mandatory quotas. It is a plan Europe simply must adopt if it is to get a handle on the crisis and remain true to its history and values.

There is no question that this calamity is without a simple solution. About half a million people have already entered Europe this year and hundreds of thousands more are poised to follow from the Middle East and North Africa. But Europe’s disarray and incompetence in the face of the flood of refugees has only made matters worse, wreaking havoc in front-line countries like Greece, Italy and Hungary and chaos all along the routes taken by refugees trying to reach a safe haven.

Many Europeans have reacted with individual compassion, and Germany and Sweden have been exemplary in accepting large numbers of refugees. But the shocking image of a Hungarian camerawoman deliberately tripping a man fleeing from the police has become the icon of a nasty backlash in many parts of Europe against the mass migration, with refugee camps set ablaze and xenophobic demagogues railing against an “Islamic invasion.”

However great the crisis, it should not have come to this. It should not have come as a surprise: Four million Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country have long overwhelmed refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, while boatloads of miserable people have been risking death to cross the Mediterranean for years. It was certainly within the ability of a rich and united Europe to manage.

Mr. Juncker’s proposal is hardly a panacea, and would still leave hundreds of thousands of refugees in Europe seeking a place to go. But it represents an approach the E.U. should have adopted from the very outset. As Mr. Juncker noted, the 160,000 represents a mere 0.11 percent of the the union’s total population, and the newcomers could be the infusion of youth and energy that an aging Europe needs.

Adopting this relatively modest plan of action is essential not only for self-evident humanitarian reasons, but also to reverse the threat to the very survival of the E.U. and its system of open borders. That is a point Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who has emerged as the strongest European voice for united and compassionate action, has repeatedly stressed.

Resistance to Mr. Juncker’s proposal is certain. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, has shamefully argued for keeping out the mainly Muslim refugees “to keep Europe Christian,” and several other nations have resisted any quotas. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has declared he will not participate in Mr. Juncker’s plan, and will accept only 20,000 Syrians over the next five years, who will come directly from Middle Eastern camps.

When European interior ministers gather on Monday, they should recall that many of their own people were refugees not long ago, and that their union was based on values that evolved through their own history of suffering and flight. They must understand that beyond simply sharing a burden they are called on to do what conscience dictates.

Adopting the Juncker plan should be the long-overdue start of a far wider European effort to address the crisis, with safer venues and common rules for asylum seekers and refugees, better search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and an equitable system of relocation.

As Europe gets its act together, so should the United States. President Obama indicated Thursday that the United States would take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees. But the White House also emphasized that the administration would not expedite the review process for refugees, which can take two years to complete. That paltry number sets a terrible example for other nations asked to step up to this urgent challenge.